Deportation looms for convicted 'Real Housewives' husband

FILE - This March 4, 2014 file photo shows Teresa, left, and Joe Giudice, from "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," leaving federal court in Newark, N.J. Joe Giudice has been released from federal prison and is waiting to see if he‚Äôll be deported back to Italy. Giudice and wife Teresa pleaded guilty in 2014 to bankruptcy fraud and submitting false loan applications to get $5 million in mortgages and construction loans. Joe Giudice also pleaded guilty to not paying about $200,000 in income taxes. He has said through his attorneys that he came to the U.S. as an infant and wasn't aware he wasn't an American citizen. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File)

NEWARK, N.J. — The husband of one of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey" reality TV stars has been released from federal prison and is waiting to see if he'll be deported back to Italy.

Joe Giudice was moved this week to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in McElhattan, in central Pennsylvania, according to attorney Jerard Gonzalez.

Last October, a judge in York, Pennsylvania, ruled Giudice would be deported to his native country upon completion of his sentence for financial fraud and failing to pay income taxes. Giudice has appealed the ruling.

Giudice has said through his attorneys that he came to the U.S. as an infant and wasn't aware he wasn't an American citizen.

Giudice and wife Teresa pleaded guilty in 2014 to bankruptcy fraud and submitting false loan applications to get $5 million in mortgages and construction loans. Joe Giudice also pleaded guilty to not paying about $200,000 in income taxes.

Teresa Giudice served nearly a year in prison and was freed in December 2015. Under a sentencing agreement that allowed for continuous care of the couple's four young children, Joe Giudice began serving his 41-month sentence in March 2016.

Joe Giudice's federal sentence ran concurrent with an 18-month state sentence for unlawful use of an ID and impersonation, stemming from his 2014 guilty plea in an unrelated case. He was charged with using his brother's identity to obtain a driver's license while his own license was suspended for driving while intoxicated in 2010.